Options
Cinnabar Caterpillar With Host Plant
e6filmuser
Registered Users Posts: 3,378 Major grins
My images of insects show them as I find them, hopefully from some good angles. I then often add text about their lifestyle.
Today I am doing something slightly different. I am showing a mature caterpillar in circumstances rarely seen. Although I have never seen them, I believe that the eggs of this species are laid on or very close to the flower buds of Ragwort, its food plant. It is normal to see lots of tiny, first instar caterpillars on the flower buds or opened flowers, which they rapidly consume.
As they continue to feed and grow, the caterpillars move down the plant, consuming the leaves. Thus, all that survives of the plant is a skeletal stem and veins. Seeing caterpillars on or close to open flowers just does not normally happen.
This year has been abnormal in many ways for our local insects and one feature has been the succession of broods of these caterpillars over much of the warmer season. It is in this situation that I recently found this late instar caterpillar next to intact flowers. So we have a kind of environmental portrait, associating the species with the flowers of its food plant.
I took shots from a variety of angles, to get more of the flowers in the background, and at f16 and f11 to give some variation in separation.
EM-1 (manual mode), Kiron 105, f16 or f11, twin TTL RC flash, hand-held.
Harold
Today I am doing something slightly different. I am showing a mature caterpillar in circumstances rarely seen. Although I have never seen them, I believe that the eggs of this species are laid on or very close to the flower buds of Ragwort, its food plant. It is normal to see lots of tiny, first instar caterpillars on the flower buds or opened flowers, which they rapidly consume.
As they continue to feed and grow, the caterpillars move down the plant, consuming the leaves. Thus, all that survives of the plant is a skeletal stem and veins. Seeing caterpillars on or close to open flowers just does not normally happen.
This year has been abnormal in many ways for our local insects and one feature has been the succession of broods of these caterpillars over much of the warmer season. It is in this situation that I recently found this late instar caterpillar next to intact flowers. So we have a kind of environmental portrait, associating the species with the flowers of its food plant.
I took shots from a variety of angles, to get more of the flowers in the background, and at f16 and f11 to give some variation in separation.
EM-1 (manual mode), Kiron 105, f16 or f11, twin TTL RC flash, hand-held.
Harold
0